Automated dishwashing appliances, commonly known as dishwashers, have been known for decades. Conventionally, such appliances are mounted underneath a kitchen countertop and are hard plumbed into water supply of the house or building to provide a hot and cold water supply to the appliance, and to drain rinse water and waste away. Conventionally, a hinged door is provided on a front surface of the appliance which pivots downwardly so as to be level with the floor and allow access of the user to the washing chamber of the appliance. One or more trays are slidably mounted within the washing chamber to facilitate loading of the tray with dishes of the homeowner. The trays are typically mounted on casters to facilitate the sliding action.
While effective, such floor mounted dishwashing appliances are relatively expensive. The appliances are expensive not only in terms of initial financial outlay, but also by way of the house or apartment needing to be physically plumbed to provide the water supply to the floor or wall adjacent the dishwasher. While this expense is reasonable for most, a large portion of the population cannot afford either the initial financial outlay or the cost of plumbing the house accordingly. This is especially the case in older homes or apartments wherein the plumbing is not already provided, but rather the living space must be retrofitted to accommodate the appliance.
It is also known to provide dishwashing appliances which are not mounted under a countertop, but rather are provided in a smaller format and adapted to be placed on top of a countertop, table or the like. Such units typically include some sort of housing which sits on top of a countertop, but otherwise has many of the same features of the aforementioned under-countertop dishwasher. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,761, issued to Meeker, which as shown best in its FIG. 1, includes a substantially rectangular box-like enclosure with a front door which hinges outwardly away from a front face of the appliance to provide access to a sliding tray provided therein. A motor and pump assembly is provided to spray water and detergent against the dishes mounted therein. However, the unit is designed to be directly connected into the water supply of the home or business. Again, this will accordingly result in added expense in that the house must be plumbed accordingly.
Other examples of countertop mounted portable dishwashers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,469,586; 3,777,989; 5,184,635; 5,518,014; and 6,092,540, the latter three of which disclose the water supply being plumbed not to fixed copper conduit as would be the case of an under-counter mounted dishwashing appliance, but rather by way of a fixture mounted directly to the head of a faucet. For example, as shown in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,104, the hose or other conduit is fed directly from the faucet tap to the dishwashing unit. Again, while effective, it necessarily requires that the appliance be mounted directly adjacent a sink. In addition, it necessarily occupies the sink during operation, thus preventing the sink from being used for further activities, requires the user to connect and disconnect the unit every time it is to be used, and is relatively unsightly in that the conduits are in plain sight, often dangling into the sink basin itself. In addition, none of the aforementioned dish washing appliances are truly portable in that they need to be connected to either a fixed plumbing supply within the house or building, or must be attached to a faucet as indicated above.
Additionally, while such countertop mounted dishwashing appliances are relatively effective, they are also relatively limited in their capacity to wash dishes. Simply based on their dimensions, only a relatively few number of dishes, glasses or pieces of silverware can be loaded therein. Moreover, while less expensive than the floor mounted or under-countertop mounted variety, such units are also sufficiently expensive so as to be precluded from purchase by a relatively large share of the population. For example, a 2003 U.S. housing survey indicated that roughly 40% of U.S. homes are not equipped with dishwashers and cannot afford such dishwashers. Accordingly, that large share of the population, typically comprised of the extremely poor or young, would benefit from a washing apparatus which is small in size, inexpensive, and truly portable.
In addition, existing dishwashers are typically very ineffective at cleaning silverware, prompting users to hand wash silverware before using the dishwasher to fully clean the silverware. Surveys have also shown that washing silverware is by far the most tedious and most undesirable phase of dishwashing and if only that phase can be automated, the consuming public would benefit. Finally, if such a device can be manufactured, it can be truly portable so as to be usable on trips, during camping, aboard RVs, and in other situations wherein the aforementioned appliances simply are not realistically feasible.